Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Ebara Corporation

Other

Disco Corporation

Shoichi Kodama

Hiromi Yajima

Riichiro Aoki

Tetsuji Togawa

Toyomi Nishi

Yukio Imoto

Manabu Tsujimura

Gisuke Kouno

Kazuaki Himukai

Atsushi Shigeta

Shiro Mishima

Harumitsu Saito

Masako Watase

Toshiro Maekawa

Satomi Hamada

Takashi Omichi

Tamami Takahashi

Youngsuk Kim

Nobuyuki Takada

Takanobu Nishimura

Takeshi Sakurai

Kazuhiro Sakaya

A method of assessing a semiconductor substrate includes a sticking step of sticking a device layer of the semiconductor substrate to a support substrate, a thinning step of thinning the semiconductor substrate from a reverse side thereof to a thickness smaller than a finished thickness after the sticking step is carried out, and an assessing step of applying light to the semiconductor substrate from the reverse side thereof and measuring scattered light from the semiconductor substrate thereby to assess a property of the semiconductor substrate.

Method of assessing semiconductor substrate and method of assessing device chip

A polishing apparatus includes an arrangement of a plurality of units to deal with various operations and a robot having at least one arm. The plurality of units are disposed around the robot and include a loading unit for receiving thereon a, e.g. dry, workpiece to be polished, a polishing system including at least one polishing unit for polishing the workpiece, a washing system and a drying system at least including one washing unit for washing and drying the polished workpiece, and an unloading unit for receiving thereon a resultant clean and dry polished workpiece.

Method and apparatus for dry-in, dry-out polishing and washing of a semiconductor device

A polishing apparatus for polishing a surface of a workpiece includes a housing unit, a partition wall partitioning an interior of the housing unit into a first chamber and a second chamber, a polishing section disposed in the first chamber and having a turntable with an abrasive cloth mounted on an upper surface thereof and a top ring positioned above the turntable for supporting the workpiece to be polished and pressing the workpiece against the abrasive cloth, and a cleaning section disposed in the second chamber and cleaning the workpiece which has been polished. The polishing apparatus further includes a transferring device for transferring the workpiece which has been polished from the polishing section to the cleaning section through an opening and an exhaust system for exhausting ambient air from each of the polishing section and cleaning section separately and independently.

Polishing apparatus

Polishing apparatus and a method of polishing and cleaning and drying a wafer

An apparatus for conveying a workpiece as used to convey the workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate or liquid crystal panel, between processing apparatuses when the workpiece is processed in the plurality of processing apparatuses. The amount of liquid on a surface of a workpiece is adjusted to a predetermined amount, and the workpiece, which retains the predetermined amount of liquid, is conveyed between processes. The adjusting includes both supplying a sufficient amount of liquid onto the surface of the workpiece, which is in a certain state, and removing a certain amount of liquid from the surface of the workpiece.

Apparatus for conveying a workpiece

Polishing apparatus and method

A polishing apparatus can produce a uniform quality of polished products by supplying a polishing solution consistently without being affected by any disturbances in the solution supply source. The polishing apparatus comprises: a polishing section for polishing a workpiece by pressing the same against a polishing tool; a solution piping assembly to be connected to an external solution supply device for transferring a polishing solution therefrom to the polishing section; and a solution suction device provided in the solution piping assembly for introducing the polishing solution from the solution supply device to the polishing section at a desired flow rate.

A method and apparatus for conveying workpiece is used for conveying a workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer, glass substrate or liquid crystal panel between processing apparatuses when the workpiece is processed in a plurality of processing apparatuses. The method includes adjusting the amount of liquid on a surface of a workpiece to a predetermined amount, and conveying the workpiece which retains the predetermined amount of liquid between processes. The surface of the workpiece is kept wet by the liquid on the workpiece. The adjusting includes supplying a sufficient amount of liquid onto the surface of the workpiece which is in a certain state, and removing a certain amount of liquid from the surface of the workpiece.

Method and apparatus for conveying a workpiece

A polishing facility integrates separate components of polishing such as wafer transport, polishing, cleaning and drying in one standardized facility to provide efficient polishing operation at low cost. The facility is designed to deal with a variety of different types of wafers, including different types of surface film, and is designed also to enables quick and low cost upgrading of the facility to meet advancing requirements of customers. The polishing facility can be placed within a cleanroom to provide efficient handling of polished wafers for further processing and fabrication tasks. Individual work component of polishing is arranged in one block having its own power supply and signal lines, and is controlled by a central controller having a dedicated software program for each work component. Therefore, if upgrading of the facility is required on any work component, only that work component requiring attention needs to be repaired/replaced, thus eliminating the need to shut down the entire facility as in conventional polishing setups. Each work component is modularized for easy replacement and inventory purposes. The overall effect of the integrated polishing facility is that the efficiency of the polishing operation is significantly improved at minimal cost of labor and capital investments.

Polishing facility

A polishing apparatus includes a detachable light weight cloth cartridge which shows little deformation under uneven loading during a polishing operation. Either mechanical or non-mechanical fixation of the cloth cartridge to a turntable is achieved. Mechanical fixation involves attaching the cloth cartridge to the turntable at peripheral and center sections of the cloth cartridge. Non-mechanical fixation involves attaching the cloth cartridge to the turntable by a vacuum arrangement. The assembly of the cloth cartridge and the turntable not only produces excellent flatness on polished semiconductor wafers by maintaining a level polishing surface, but also improves the production yield by preventing breakage of wafers during the polishing process.

Polishing apparatus including cloth cartridge connected to turntable

Polishing aparatus and method

An apparatus for transferring a predetermined number of semiconductor wafers to a wafer boat charging/discharging unit or to one of an array of vertical type dispersing furnaces via the wafer boat charging/discharging unit. The apparatus is operated by actuating the wafer boat charging/discharging unit adapted to charge a wafer boat having a mass of semiconductor wafers carried thereon in a vertical state in a furnace tube of the dispersing furnace by using a vertically displaceable wafer boat stage on which the wafer boat is charged in a furnace tube in cooperation with a wafer boat handler. After completion of a dispersing operation, the wafer boat is lowered away from the furnace tube and then returned to a wafer boat transferring passage with the aid of the wafer boat handler. The apparatus includes as essential components a wafer carrier holding section having a plurality of wafer carriers carried thereon, a turn head for displacing one of the wafer carriers via turning movement by an angle of 180 degrees, an attitude changing mechanism for turning a wafer boat having a mass of semiconductor wafers received therein from a horizontal position to a vertical position by an angle of 90 degrees and a wafer boat transferring section extending in front of the array of vertical type dispersing furnaces.

Apparatus for transferring semiconductor wafers

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Shoichi Kodama